Holiday part 2!

Despite the weather we are having at the moment, we are having a good time.  On Monday we went to Whitby in the pouring rain and visited the Whitby Wizard which is a small science museum that Alex loved. Various of the exhibits had him giggling and laughing outloud.  However, for me the main part of the day was our trip on Elizabeth the steam bus. 

I love steam in all shapes so thoroughly enjoyed our trip around town on her...the views of the abbey through the rain were lovely

and after the tour Alex was allowed to come into the cab for this photo with Vernon her driver, who also happened to have driven the Hogwarts express in the first three movies!

On Tuesday we went to the SeaLife Centre in Scarborough where we had a great time watching the various fish. I particularly liked the turtle

and the extremely cute otters.

Alex was very fond of the seals

and especially liked watching them swim under water

as well as panning for gold (well it was messing with water wasn't it!)

We then went on the North Bay railway for a little ride

and generally had a great time.

In the afternoon we went rock pooling and found loads of mussels, limpets, a crab and a shrimp.  Alex enjoyed it despite the long walk, but he hated the wind which was blowing very hard so we didn't stay for long.

Despite rests every afternoon poor Tim is exhausted so we decided that today we would go to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and ride on the trains. We were lucky enough to go from Goathland (Ainsfield in Heartbeat and Hogsmead station in Harry Potter) to Grosmont on a little diesel

And Alex got to have a sit in the cab at the controls.

On the way back we were on the steam train and decided to sit in first class

…travelling in style! As a complete steam freak I loved it!

There is something wonderful about the sounds and smells of steam railway that I love and the advantage of going to Goathland is that it is where the trains pass so we got to see lots of trains!

As it is Wednesday it is time for WOYWW, well in my case it is actually WOYHCKT (What's on your holiday cottage kitchen table!). I did bring some crafting things with me, although I haven't had time to do much, but here it is spread out with me mid crafting session. You can see the mini book that I am working on at the moment as part of my holiday diary, my distress inks and pads, some stamps and an empty mug of tea.

This is the righthand side of the table, where you can see the cutting mat, inkadinkado stamps, card, stickers etc in folders and box and in the distance the maps and guide books. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Holiday part 1

Woohoo, we are now on holiday.  We made it to Filey safely and settled into our cute little holiday cottage yesterday. It is an old fishermans cottage with several antique features and a lovely fitted kitchen and is only 5 minutes walk from the beach

so yesterday afternoon we went down and explored the beach and had great fun

digging sandcastles which were knocked down by the tide

as well as splashing in the waves.

Today we headed over to Scarborough and explored the castle which was great fun. 

It is in an amazing location over looking the two bays of sand and we had fun climbing up to the top and looking over the different views. 

We then went down to the harbour where we had two different boat rides. 

Tim really wanted a speed boat ride which we all enjoyed despite Alex sticking his head in my lap for much of it due to the wind. 

We then went on a pirate ship,

the Hispaniola,

which allowed for a much more relaxing trip out to sea.

In the afternoon while Tim went to sleep Alex and I went back down to the beach and played in the water with his little balls.

Needless to say I haven't done any crafting since coming away (not had time yet) but I made this layout before I went to fit with the Quirky Crafts sketch challenge and the Scrap it with a song challenge for this week.  I hope you like it.  Have a good week everyone!
Love,
Caro
x

Off tomorrow!

We are off on our holidays tomorrow and I can't wait.  The house is currently in a state of chaos as we tend to travel with everything including the kitchen sink.  Some of it (like bedding etc) can't be packed until tomorrow but I am trying to do as much today as I can.  Alex is in a state of total excitement, although I don't think he quite realises what is happening and what going on holiday means.  I hope he has fun and I really pray for good weather. This is a silly photo of him with a ducks beak - don't ask me why!

Crafting wise I made this little book mark as one of mine had fallen apart. It is a simple design using crate paper as the background and then different stamps on it.  This is one side

and this is the other. As it is a book mark it fits with CCC and crazy 4 challenges themes of 'anything book related'. It also fits with the autumnal theme from Paperplay.

This scrapbook layout follows this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch and the theme of spots and stripes from Stamp something. The layout uses fancy pants papers and embellishments, is entitled 'Driving' and the journalling reads ' Alex loves pretending to drive the car and has driven us to Scotland, London, Somerset and the moon! May-Aug 2010'. Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

WOYWW again!

Wednesday is here already and it is time for WOYWW. I should be getting ready for my holiday which starts this weekend, but I am too busy crafting and working to get organised at the moment.   Even my usually relatively tidy desk is a bit of a tip today as you can see.  This is it with the scrapbook page I am currently working on.  You can see the Doodlebug alphabet stickers i have used, my china blue distress ink pad, the Kanban stamp set, my white sakura pen for highlights and details on the page, an almost completely drunk mug of tea and much more.  There isn't really any space left for me to add the final details to the page!

Many of you who visited my blog last week asked to see the finished Christening card so here it is - enjoy!

Finally here is the finished scrapbook page.  It followed sketch #125 from nuts about sketches and fits with the Practical scrappers challenge to use cardstock with a white core - I put mine through the cuttlebug and sandpapered the embossed layer. The page also fits with the something cute theme from Stamp something (I am biased but I think that Alex is cute!) and the multiple photos from Scrap and stamp.  The stamp I used is a tiny bubbles one from Kanban...I also used a pen lid as a stamp to make the circle shapes! The title of the page is 'Crazy Bubbles' and the journalling reads 'Alex, Sam and Tom had a wonderful time playing with the bubble machine in Granny and Grandpa Pete's garden. The shouts and squeals of laughter echoed round and were lovely to hear.  What better way to spend a sunny afternoon.' Apologies for the light reflection on one of the photos.  Sorry I am late today with the WOYWW but have a great one and a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Nicholas' Christening

Sorry that I am a day late with my usual Sunday night posting, but I didn't get back home until late Sunday evening having spent a wonderful weekend in London at my brother's house.  My youngest nephew Nicholas was Christened yesterday morning so Alex and I travelled down on Saturday to spend some time playing with everyone and to stay the night before the Christening.  The Christening was lovely and everyone behaved very well.

Nicholas was so good and didn't object in the slightest to being made wet..he just looked ever so slightly bemused by the process.

The party in the garden at Andy and Nel's afterwards was a great success with the children happily playing on the climbing frame and with the sandpit.

The Christening cake was cut by Andy and Daniel while Nel looked on and Nicholas looked anywhere but at the cake!

Alex borrowed a smart shirt for the occassion, but I didn't manage to cut his hair or make it look smart!

Here is Nicholas with his parents and godparents still looking bemused by the day and all the people.

Gran also made the journey to London for the Christening so there was even a photo taken of the two of us together!  All in all it was a wonderful day and weekend.

Since getting back I have managed to make a little card following the sketch and stash challenge #43 which I turned sideways (my unused stash is the stamp which is part of a set I was given in June ~ this is the first time I have used this particular stamp). This also fits with the OLL challenge of stripes, the Practical scrappers challenge of using cardstock with a white centre (the leaf which is embosed and then sanded to show the white core), the leaves challenge from Stamp simply and the clean and simple challenge from SCSC.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Phew!

I am so glad that it is the end of the working week...I had so much to do this week that I am totally exhausted. Alex is shattered too as he has a stinking cold which is stopping him from sleeping, but he is very excited about going to his cousins for the weekend.

Crafting wise I finished the Christening card I started on Wednesday.  It loosely follows this weeks CPS (#182) and fits with the white and one other challenge from Crafty Creations and the saphires challenge from DCM. I masked the cross and used distress inks and an inkadinkado swirl stamp to create the blue cross, then pricked round the edge of it and round the edge of the white panel.  The background was made using my score board. 

I also made this scrapbook layout following this weeks US sketch.  It isn't the nicest subject in the world as it is about Alex having chicken pox and so I really can't decide whether or not I like it if I am completely honest!  I used a black pen to make fake stitches round the spotted paper so the layout also fits with the stitches challenge from Paper play.  The journalling reads 'Alex developed chicken pox on 4th December 2009. We were lucky that he wasn't very ill with it - in fact the worst part for him was being off nursery - he couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to go and see his friends.  The spots were gone by Christmas!'. Have a great weekend everyone. 
Love,
Caro
x

bank holiday week

Well Bank Holiday Monday turned out nicer than the rest of the weekend, although Tuesday was even brighter…just in time for me to be back at work and stuck marking theses (boo hoo!). We did have a nice holiday though, gently mooching around at home with time to craft (I made two layouts), time to play with Alex and a trip out to the miniature railway in Abbeydale.

I don’t know who enjoyed the rides on the trains more…Alex or me!

It is time for another WOYWW and my desk is still looking relatively tidy. It comes from having to put things away after each project thereby clearing the decks for the next project. You can see that I am part way through making a Christening card for my nephew using distress inks and an inkadinkado stamp. On my desk is also my cutting mat, some double sided sticky tape, ruler, pencil, craft knife and a roll of repositionable glue...an absolute must for masking images, and the inevitable mostly drunk cup of tea (now gone cold and needs to be replaced!).

Here is a close up of the cross that I am making for the card.  I cut out the basic shape in a scrap bit of paper, then stuck it onto white card using repositionable glue, sponged distress ink over the top and then stamped the swirls in darker blue over the top of that.  When I peel the scrap paper away I should be left with a nice cross image. 

This first scrapbook page was of Alex’s birthday which we celebrated with a family party at my parents in Somerset. The page is titled ‘Party’ and it used distress inks splodged onto the background with a brush and then a pritt stick cap to make the circles.

The two large buttons at the top were made using some Doodlebug design paper, cut out with my nesties and mounted onto cardboard (following instructions and the challenge from Scrap and Stamp). To finish them off I made 4 holes in each one, stamped Happy Birthday onto them and added the sparkly stickers.

The cupcake is a digital image, which I coloured and added glitter glue to, so this page also fits with the Bee crafty challenge of ‘Anything goes but you must use a digital stamp’, the green, glitter and stitching challenge from Stamp and doodle, the glitter and sparkle challenge from Crafty Cardmakers and follows sketch #123 from Nuts about sketches. The journaling reads ‘ We celebrated Alex’s third birthday with a family party at Grandma and Grandad’s house. Alex enjoyed the presents, laughter and fun of the Easter Egg hunt, playing with his new toys and especially the chocolate caterpillar cake – he liked eating the icing feet!’.

The final scrapbook page is entitled ‘Car Heaven’ and follows sketch #119 from creative scrappers (I hand drew the red circle onto the background paper, uses white pen (corners and the left and righthand edges of the red panel) for Practical Scrappers, and was inspired by the line ‘Boy, I’m so happy’ from this weeks Scrap it with a song challenge. I had to use that line of the song as the layout was about two very happy little boys. The journaling reads ‘Alex was delighted and so happy when he realised that Owain was a petrolhead too – the two boys played happily together for hours.’ All the cardstock on this layout is from the Fancy Pants ‘rough and tough’ range. Have a great WOYWW if you are playing along, and have a fantastic rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x